The Ages Gone
by amy1oM
Summary: COMPLETE: Four poems with a melancholy Elven theme with 2 featuring Lord Elrond and Arwen Undómiel...
1. The Age of the Dominion of Men

**The Age of the Dominion of Men**  
Middle-earth weeps at   
The departure of the fair  
Immortal Eldar 

With the Eldar gone  
Soon the mellyrn, elanor  
Become a legend

Lothlórien soon  
Passes into time's grey mists  
Vanishing forever

The fate of the Realm  
Imladris is no better  
With its Lord absent

For never again  
Shall such timeless beauty grace  
The mortal homelands

Now come is the Age  
Of the Dominion of Men  
Ilúvatar's Secondborn


	2. Exquisite Pain

_"If love were a choice, who would ever choose such exquisite pain?"_ - **Anna and the King**

===  
Exquisite, precious  
Arwen Undómiel Noble  
Maiden, the Evenstar

Arwen, the brightest  
Star in my sky following  
Celebrían's loss

With Ilúvatar's  
Grace did I not cherish my  
Daughter's love enough?

By cruel fate she does  
Feel compelled to surrender  
Her life's ample grace

Surrendered for a  
Mortal man's love, so very  
Very fleeting love

She has traded an  
Eternity in Aman's   
Light for such brief bliss

Yea, once did I call the  
Man Estel my son afore  
His gall was displayed

Since he won Arwen's  
Hand, my son no longer is he  
But Isildur's Heir

To a King only  
Will Undómiel's grace go  
To a King only

O Celebrían!  
Our children did you entrust   
To my safekeeping

Alas, my love, I  
Have failed you, I have failed _us_   
Our daughter will die

What exquisite pain  
Love has been called, and indeed  
Love that is what it is

The heart's exquisite  
Sorrow it is, yet I would   
Not have been denied

For without it in  
My heart, instead I would have  
Been denied her love

My daughter's love  
Was worth eternal sorrow  
O eternal sorrow

What shall I tell your  
Naneth, my daughter, about   
Your mortal life, hmmm?

Shall I tell her you  
Found happiness however   
Fleeting in my eyes?

Shall I tell her the   
Price you paid was too great for  
A mortal man's love?

Shall I tell her you  
Will not be joining us in  
The Uttermost West?

Shall I tell her the   
Price you paid was too great for  
A mortal man's love?

Shall I tell her you  
Will not be joining us in  
The Uttermost West?

Shall I tell her that   
Aragorn, Arathorn's son   
Was worthy of you?

I cannot tell her  
This, for I believe no man  
Is worthy of you

So I shall tell her   
This man will love you as best  
His heart will allow

Aragorn will lend  
What comfort he may against  
The great sea-longing

He will dry your tears  
Shed in vain when you wish to   
See my face again

Yes, my daughter  
I am not long for this world  
With the One's unmaking

O, my child, know this  
My heaty will weep for you 'til  
Arda's unmaking

The hope that will keep   
Me from Mandos is the hope  
Of our reunion

If Ilúvatar is  
Indeed merciful we **shall**  
Be reunited

===  
**Naneth** / _Mother_


	3. The Sweeter Song

**The Sweeter Song**

**Royal Chief Archivist Note:**  
The following was found within the annuals of Rivendell, and is directly translated from the manuscipt written by the she-Elf Celevoniêl, daughter of Iphanterien, to whose tale we sadly do not know the end of.

* * *

Could it be that the  
Mortals' part of Ilúvatar's  
Song could be sweeter? 

Could it be they whose  
Laterns burn hotter, brighter  
Than immortal lights

Be the sweeter part  
Of Ilúvatar's plan for  
The world He hath wrought?

Yea the Eldar live  
Scores of years longer than the  
Secondborn children but

Perhaps in their brief  
Existence upon Arda's  
Vast lands is the more

Joyous, and perhaps  
It is sweeter than honey  
More glorious than

Varda's handiwork  
That glitter as diamonds in  
The curtains of black

Could the Edain know  
Greater joy than the Eldar?  
Surely they know less

Sorrow than those of  
Ilúvatar's creation who  
Endure for as long

As Arda itself?  
Since they are not bound to the  
Circles of the World

Can they see their Gift  
For what it is: Freedom from  
Eternal despair?

I know that there are  
Those of the Edain who would  
Give up Ilúvatar's

Gift to them if they   
Could live forever in their  
Present form

Could have our own gift  
Of immortality; but   
As one who lives with

The Gift, it is not   
All the Secondborn believe or  
Dream it to be

I, Celevoniêl, daughter   
Of Iphanterien have lived long enough  
To become wearied to the very core of my soul

Will the West truly  
Offer me the rest I seek  
Or must I go to the Halls to find rest?

Even then I am in  
Doubt Mandos can offer me  
The rest I so crave

O, Ilúvatar,  
Hear the cry of your child  
Give my soul its rest!

Or else I beg thee  
To release me from the bonds  
Of this World's oppressive Circles

Hear my cry, release  
Me from this curse of the  
Eldar, make me as one of the Edain...

* * *

**Archivist Post Script:**

_Her Majesty the Queen Arwen I, has informed me it is known through the Elven oral history that Iphanterien o sell Celevoniêl departed into the West shortly after she wrote these verses. It is however unknown whether or not Celevoniêl found her peace as those who go do not return from far yonder shores of Aman. _


	4. Exquisite Pain II

**Royal Chief Archivist Note:**_  
The following was taken from the journal of Queen Arwen I,   
the Evenstar of Gondor; published in the Chronicles of  
Minas Tirith by Her Majesty's explicit permission_

  
  
In my mind's eye I   
Knew the exact moment  
My father left this world 

I beheld the grey  
Ship as it unfurled its sails  
Wind carried westward

"Fare thee well, Ada!"  
I whispered, weeping because   
I was not with him

But only on that  
Day did I weep for what I  
Had lost, only then

Never again did   
I weep for Nana, Ada  
Parted forever

Not until this hour,  
Estel, did I regret the  
Sweet and the bitter

Indeed was the choice   
I made both the sweet and the   
Bitter, so bitter

"What if I had it   
To do over again?" I  
Ever ask myself

My choice would not be  
Any different even   
To gain Elvenhome

For as Lúthien  
Had no light without Beren  
So would my plight be

Even in the Light  
Of Aman, I would have died  
For the want of you

This and more said I  
To Ada, still he bid me  
"Come West, my daughter."

Ada was so sure  
Aman's light would full heal me  
As it healed Naneth

Healing there was not  
To be found there for me none  
Ever without you

And so I renounced  
The Twilight and embraced a  
Mortal's brief lifetime

Learning to live as  
A mortal was difficult  
More than expected

But your presence, love,  
Eased the transition, and made  
It more bearable

Bearable until  
This moment when I am faced  
With the loss of you

In the moment you  
Declared your intent to seek  
Sleep with your fathers

As I labored on  
The Banner of the White Tree  
Ada did warn me

Saying "Thy time with  
Arathorn's son seem will seem all  
Too brief, too fleeting

As he lies down to sleep  
Forever, thy heart shall be  
Utterly broken

In nothing and in   
No one shall thee ever find  
Any comfort again

Not even in thy  
Own children will be able   
To mend thy torn heart

Thou shalt know only  
Great despair and sorrow 'til  
The end of thy days comes."

I remember, Estel  
Gazing into his ageless  
Wise grey eyes, saying,

"If such a moment   
Comes, then I will seek out rest   
In Lothlórien

To Cerin Amroth  
Will I go and there I will  
Lay until my soul flees

Flees towards the great  
Heavens, and into the arms  
Of my only love

We will then flee the  
Circles of the World to seek  
Ilúvatar's Halls."

Many in our Realm  
Would be shocked to discover   
Their Queen was naïve

Enough to speak such  
Word without any thought as   
To their consequence

Yea I am naïve  
Though I have walked this earth for   
Nigh three thousand years

Was I naïve to  
Think the time I spent loving  
You would be worth the cost?

Nay! Nay! Nay! Estel,  
Loving you was worth the cost  
And a privilege

I would hasten to  
This course again, without a  
Moment's hesistance

===  
**Ada** / _Daddy_  
**Nana** / _Mama_  
**Naneth** / _Mother_

_"If love were a choice, who would ever choose such exquisite pain?"_ - **Anna and the King**


End file.
